Molecular paleontology is an emerging subdiscipline within paleontology, with only a few decades of research amassed to date. Yet, in such a short time, it has changed how we approach questions of evolutionary relationships within extinct taxa, and called into question some of our long-held assumptions about both the geochemical processes that drive fossilization and the molecules that compose living tissues. Because this field is still developing, our efforts to answer many crucial questions about ancient protein preservation and how to characterize it have done little more than scratch the surface. Thus, molecular paleontology is rife with opportunities for ground-breaking, transformative discoveries.
My research centers on paleoproteomics—the application of mass spectrometry (specifically tandem mass spectrometry, or LC-MS/MS) to archeological and paleontological specimens from a variety of ages and taxa, to probe their preserved protein content by characterizing protein sequences. I am currently an Assistant Research Professor at North Carolina State University.
